De Beers and Botswana to Seek New Diamond Deposits
November 20, 23
(IDEX Online) - De Beers and the Botswana government will work together to find more diamond deposits, after both sides agreed a 10-year deal in June.
"Most of our mines are ageing, and therefore, we need to look beyond Botswana if we want to continue generating wealth for this country," said Lefoko Maxwell Moagi, Botswana's minister of minerals and energy.
He was speaking at the annual Natural Diamond Summit, in Gaborone, which explored the theme Sustainability: People, Product and Planet.
Moagi said countries in Africa and beyond - including Canada and Brazil - had vast mineral resources but lacked Botswana's half a century of diamond mining experience.
"We will be able to advance these explorations to production in a much quicker timeline because we have run the world 's biggest diamond mines for decades," he added.
Al Cook, De Beers CEO, said: "We have agreed that there will be a number of countries in the world where De Beers and Botswana will explore together. We believe that matches the diamond expertise of Botswana and its force as the world 's leading diamond nation together with De Beers' unrivalled technological capacity in the understanding of exploration potential in the world."
In June De Beers and the Botswana government reached a last-minute deal under which Botswana's share of the rough diamonds will double to 50 per cent over the next decade, and licenses for the joint venture miner Debswana will be extended for a further 25 years.
File pic shows Al Cook, CEO De Beers Group and Lefoko Moagi, Botswana government's minerals and energy minister.